Breast Cancer Stages

Breast cancer is a serious disease that affects millions around the world, and in the United States alone there are more than two million men and women who have survived this cancer. The disease is almost exclusively targeted to women, but there have been cases of men with breast cancer. The determining factor on whether or not someone survives breast cancer is how soon it is caught and treated, with those receiving treatment for the disease in its later stages having a much lower survival rate than those who catch the cancer early, especially in the beginning. Lower stages indicate the earlier stages of cancer while higher numbers indicate late-stage cancers a lower possibility for full recovery. Staging breast cancer lets the doctor determine its characteristics like:

  • the size of the tumor and the location in the breast
  • if it is localized or has spread within the breast
  • if the cancer has spread in the lymph nodes under the arm
  • if the cancer has spread in other parts of the body

Stage 0- is the stage of breast cancer called Carcinoma in Situ, and is not really a stage of the cancer at all, but is the earliest point at which the cancer can be caught. Patients who are treated for breast cancer at this stage survive at least five years one hundred percent of the time and most continue as though they had never had cancer. This stage is marked by the presence of atypical cells that Continue reading Breast Cancer Stages